Well, I seem to be in Omaha. At least that’s what the rental car contract says. The Hertz random upgrade program hath delivered unto me a brand new Chevrolet TrailBlazer, due to a “broken car wash.” Just the vehicle for these days of $4+ per gallon gas. Luckily, about half my meetings this week are literally across the street from the hotel.
On leaving Seattle this morning I had a lovely aerial view of four Cascade volcanos almost in alignment — Mt. Ranier, Mt. St Helens, Mt. Adams and Mt. Hood. And I’m enough of a Northwesterner now to identify them by their profiles as well as by their relative locations. I then kicked some serious butt on “In the Forests of the Night”, wrapping the first draft a bit over 18,000 words.
After that I did some crit, some contest judging, and some reading of Green. I have to a bit of audio work in the next day or two, otherwise I’m focused on Green, which has a no-shit deadline of the end of this month. (I actually finished the requested revisions back in June, on time, despite all my excellent cancer adventures, but the excellent and incomparable casacorona give me an month’s extension.)
garyomaha commented tonight that I seem more like my old self than he’s seen since the cancer bus ran me down. I think that’s true — for several hours today Classic Jay was in evidence. Completing a major story, having a clear head, I just am me. Of course, I’ve since cratered, and I still can’t do airline Sudoku (I tried), but, hey. One damned thing at time.
I’m happy.
Originally published at jlake.com. You can comment here or there.